Wayfarers

D&D Campaign at Nerd Town Emporium, Tahlequah, OK

Session 5

Wandering Elves

24

FEB/11

While interrogating the elves encountered last session, the party discovered the elves to be under the effects of a strange piece of quartz. The party mages determined that the quartz emitted a psychic energy that made those close by paranoid and erratic.

The elves reported that in fleeing the Hickorywood, they were beset by drow warriors. Given their state of mind, the accuracy of this account was dubious at best. Local history also informed the party that the elves may have passed through a region known as the “Grove of Despair” that the local gnomes claimed to be haunted by nightmares and bad memories.

Having removed the quartz from their possession, the elves’ minds began to clear. Knowing the quartz’s effects also seemed to render the party immune to its influence. Still needing a final ingredient for the antidote, the party set out again, promising to rejoin the elves and escort them to Wayfare.

Deeper into the forest, the party found itself surrounded by strange beings called wilden – bipedal fey creatures that seemed to be more plant than animal. The Wilden reported encountering the elves and being attacked before they were able to offer aid. The wilden were aware of the Grove of Despair and told the party it was a site where long ago a meteorite from the Far Realm crashed to earth. Quartz fragments of the meteorite littered the area, giving the grove its mind-clouding effects. The wilden’s mission was to cleanse the area, but they had been unable to defeat the Grove’s “guardians.” The wilden offered a boon – their elder knew how to finish the antidote the party needed and would do so if they party agreed to slay the guardians of the Grove, described as large reptiles.

The party set out for the Grove of Despair and there encountered a host of what seemed to be ordinary lizards, made larger (roughly the size of a large dog) and more aggressive by the aberrant effects of the Far Realm. While they set about slaying the lizards in the grove, a larger one (the size of a horse) emerged from it’s layer, attacking the party with both physical and psychic attacks. After a savage battle, the party slew all of the guardians and destroyed the remaining eggs in “mother’s” lair.